3 days until Bali

mmmm.. this beautiful little video really gets me in the mood.. 

In a few days I fly out of the desert and off to Bali for 2 weeks.  I am so excited to be returning there after 15 years.. 

I first went there when I was a child of 6 years and was lucky enough to be taken there many more times again by my parents who had fallen in love with the Island in the 1970's. It is a very different place to what it was then obviously, marred by all that mass-tourism brings. And I am sure it will be different to the way I remember it when I was a teenager. But I am also confident that the gentle Balinese smiles, the sunsets, the smell of clove incense in the humid air and their incredibly unique version of Hinduism will still hold moments of magic for my eyes to witness and drink in. I am so excited for that first step off the plane - when that smell, that smell of Bali, first hits me. If you have been there, you know exactly what I am talking about. I will be meeting my mother there, which will be wonderful as I have not seen her for 15 months and I love to see Bali through her eyes as she knows it so well. I will be diving too. I hope to see sharks and manta's. Unfortunately it is not the season for the amazing Mola Mola. Another time, hopefully with my favourite dive buddy. The air here in Darfur is so dry this time of year. I long for rain clouds and dampness and green, lush growth. See you in 3 weeks, masalama..

Felt inspired by this article on the thoughts and writings of Nobel Peace Prize winner Wangari Maathai,   founder of the Green Belt Movement, so I have just ordered her new book on the Kindle. CCM and I were just swapping thoughts the other day on the spirituality present in nature and environmentalism and how to define it.  Our views differed, but I really love how Maathai explains it as it finds a medium ground for both our beliefs to coexist: 

"A certain tree, forest or mountain itself may not be holy, [but] the life-sustaining services it provides — the oxygen we breathe, the water we drink — are what make existence possible," she writes. "The environment becomes sacred, because to destroy what is essential to life is to destroy life itself."


I also liked the way Sierra Club founder John Muir (in this picture) described Yosemite:

"the grandest of all special temples of Nature."

This looks amazing...

Thanks for the tip Carrie!

The latest from Steve McCurry's blog... 

This man.. what a genius with a camera.
http://stevemccurry.wordpress.com/

And his stunning website.. 

I admire Steve McCurry for his ability to be inclusive of beauty, while transmitting stories of heartache and hardship. In environments of suffering, there is still beauty to be found - in a smile, in a child's game, in the colour of a woman's garment as it is draped over her face.. I sometimes question though, whether a photo-journalist could still access and capture what he did over the past three decades. I feel the world is a different place nowadays. I feel that exposing poverty and war with openness, in unfiltered, raw formats is a lost medium.  I believe that the media controls what we see more than ever.  I feel I missed out on an opportunity.. an opportunity to become aware.. to know truth. 

The world around us.. As seen from my desert perch.

I am stuck indoors... but at least Al Jazeera, BBC World etc. are all easily accessible and we can sit and watch on as democracy is celebrated up in Tunisia and now just next door in Egypt.. what a world we live in. It is terrible that people have to die in the name of expressing their views on how their very own country should be governed, but at least the voice of the people has won in the end and those people will not have died for no reason. I hope Algeria and Yemen can find a way to protest with peace and minimal violence. The eyes of the world are on them now..on all Arab nations, finally feeling the strength to stand up for social justice and to demand what every other nation takes for granted -  democratically elected leaders who have their peoples greater good in their hearts above their own. 

And what of Sudan?

Well...time will tell. It is a tricky one.  I know plenty of young people who would hit the streets right away, but the truth is the military here would not protect them and the riot police of Sudan are a force to be reckoned with either.  If Egypt repeated itself here in Khartoum...well, I would say the death toll would be significantly higher. And for that reason alone.. I feel these streets will stay quiet. For the time being. 

Al Salam Alaikum. Peace be with you. 

What I'm listening to in my desert..

Run, run river

Carry me to my home in the ocean

Carry me away

I know I have a home

Somewhere far

And I'll move like the stars that make you feel like you got friends

Stars will make you feel like you got friends

Follow the empty valley

Past the hill

To the marshes of the estuary

Come in peaceful river

In the light of the moon with the river

I do run in the hope that one day I will die

Beneath the ocean

And at this river we'll forever run

Cyclone Yasi, the largest Cyclone white man has even witnessed in Australia is scheduled to hit the coast of FNQ in a matter of hours. My hopes and prayers are with those communities tonight. I also hope that our government recognizes the need to address global warming with increased conviction after the recent Queensland floods and now this weather pattern that many say are attributed to record high temperatures of sea waters off the northern coast of Australia.